With just over two months to the world's biggest sporting event, the World Cup, all eyes have turned to Brazil. But for a country often pictured as a racial paradise, one thing has long eluded the nation of almost 200 million: a business ownership more representative of its ethnic diversity.

The South American country has the second biggest black population in the world, after Nigeria, but white Brazilians continue to outnumber black (including mixed-race) business owners - many of them descendants of the four million slaves brought to Brazil between the 16th and late 19th century. Now, this looks set to change.

A report published in September last year by Brazil's small business agency Sebrae, ﻿Os donos de negócios no Brasil: Análise por raça/cor(Brazilian business owners: an analysis by race), revealed that black business owners made up 49% of all business owners in 2011 - up from 43% in 2001. The group make up 52% of the population.

Proportionately the percentage of white business owners shrank from 56% to 50% over the same period, with Asian and indigenous people accounting for the remaining one percent. Yet white Brazilians still make up a disproportionately higher number of business owners, as they account for 46% of the population.

The number of black business owners grew by 29% between 2001 and 2011 - from 8.6 million to 11 million - while the number of white entrepreneurs increased by just one percent (from 11.4 million to 11.5 million) over the same period.

Fuelling the change has been a stronger and more stable economy and social policies, which helped the incomes of black Brazilians increase by 123% between 2000 and 2012 - five times faster than the rest of the population, according a report by Globo newspaper in 2012.

Still not equal Yet despite their significant increase in numbers, black business business owners still bring in on average less than half the income of their white counterparts.

They also have proportionately less years of education, are younger (with average age of 42, compared to 45 years for white owners), and work less hours per week (39 hours, compared to 42 hours for white owners) and have less access to resources like telephones and IT.

Low job impactMost businesses owned by black Brazilians continue to be very small - just eight percent employ more than the owner themselves, compared to 19% of white-owned firms.

A higher percentage are involved in sectors where manual labour or low skills dominate - such as construction, agriculture , street hawking, bars, hairdressers and small restaurants.

But the low performance of black-owned firms is not unique to Brazil alone.

In South Africa where black people (African black, Indian and mixed-race people) account for 91% of the population and make up 92% of South Africa's 5.6 million business owners, according to the Finscope 2010 Small Business Survey, just 29% employ anyone other than the owner. This is against 38% of white-owned firms that employ more than the owner themselves.

For black African business owners this figure drops to 27%.

In South Africa during apartheid black Africans people were effectively banned from running and owning a business. The regime's education for black people was abysmal, while many were made to see themselves as second-class citizens. This has created not only physical barriers such as access to finance, business skills and networks, but also physiological barriers too that still linger.

Poor quality education, low savingsIn Brazil black families, with lower incomes, have limited opportunities. Even among Brazilians with 12 years or more of schooling, whites still earn 32% more than black Brazilians, according to publisher Abril's 2014 almanac - many by benefiting from networks and access to better universities.

Added to this white-owned businesses generate sales over six times higher than their black counterparts ($490,000 compared to $72,000 a year for the latter).

In a large part experts cite the lack of personal wealth among African Americans. Things are unlikely to improve any time soon, particularly as African Americans were among the hardest hit by the foreclosure of mortgages in the 2008 crisis.

Malay challengeIt's not just a problem facing black entrepreneurs. In Malaysia - where Malays and indigenous Malays (together referred to as Bumiputeras) make up 60% of the population, figures from SME Corp, the Malaysian government’s small business support organisation show that just 37.4% or 205 000 of Malaysia’s firms are Bumiputera-owned.

Though Malaysia's New Economic Policy (NEP) instituted in 1970 and its subsequent policies, including university quotas, may have had some success in boosting the share capital of Malays, it has also fuelled rent-seeking behaviour by Malay entrepreneurs.

All kinds of theories have been advanced as to why so few Bumiputeras are business owners, with the country's one-time prime minister Mahatir Mohamad, often dipping into the argument himself. Meanwhile Indian and Chinese emigrants - many with experience in business and strong networks with the business class in both their adopted country and in their homelands - have leapt ahead.

Some believe more sophisticated Malay entrepreneurs are now emerging following the help of state agencies and funds like the Bumiputera SMEs High Performance Programme in which the government aims to help 1 100 Malay companies to grow their business regionally.

Policy problemSpecific programmes and policies might help to open up more opportunities for marginalised groups, but they also have the potential to distort the market and create new problems.

In South Africa the country's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy has benefited many black-owned businesses - not just well connected and well-resourced black entrepreneurs - but it has also fuelled rent-seeking behaviour and acted as a barrier against true risk-taking entrepreneurship.

For many it is easier to take equity in larger white-owned firms than to start their own firm from scratch - particularly given the country's high failure rate. Like this too many black business people have become dependent on others.

Added to this because of affirmative action policies many well-educated and well-connected black professionals can command top salaries, leaving many to remain in management positions at large companies, rather than start up their own firms. Like this it's often the desperate and under-resourced that start up, which often only increases the chance of failure.

If more black entrepreneurs and those from other marginalised groups are to be fostered what is needed is is better education for all - rich and poor and one without a hefty price tag attached to it. Society also needs to celebrate those entrepreneurs from marginalised groups that have succeeded. Here media and support organisations can play a critical role.

In the end any policy will always be a gamble. Creating equal business ownership for all might amount to a socialistic pursuit that has more chance of failure than success. What is rather needed are equal opportunities for all. People from marginalised groups must be able to get a better start in life. It means building better schools, hospitals, roads, increasing internet lines coverage, training better teachers and doctors and opening the internet to all.

Stephen Timm is a South African who writes on small business for several newspapers. He files this from Brazil. Read more on his lessons from Brazil in his 2010 report.